Memoir on Slavery!/Memoir

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The happy period, marked by the political regeneration of Brazil, having arrived, and it being also the duty of every honorable and well-informed citizen to contribute as far as lays in his power, to a work so laudable and great, as is the happiness and improvement of his fellow beings, I flatter myself that I shall be able to submit to the General Constituent and Legislative Assembly some useful ideas on the subject, derived from study and experience.

After successfully securing to ourselves a constitution, suited to our habits and wants, as a free citizen and a national representative, it appears to me that two objects, of ​the greatest importance to the future prosperity of this empire, call for our immediate attention, The first is, a new plan to promote the general civilization of the Indians in Brazil, who, in the course of time, will enable us altogether to dispense with the use of slaves, and of the one I propose I have already submitted a sketch to this Assembly. The second is, a new law on the Slave Trade and the treatment of the unhappy bondmen now among us. The latter is exclusively the subject of the present appeal, in which I undertake to shew the necessity of abolishing the slave trade, improving the situation of the slaves we already hold, and of promoting their progressive emancipation.

When true Christians and Philanthropists, for the first time, in England, raised their voice against the trade carrying on in African slaves, there were many persons, either interested or prejudiced, who cried out that the abolition measure was impossible, or impolitic, because, as they alleged, the British colonies could not be deprived of this traffic without being driven to destruction; yet the bill eventually passed—and the colonies were not ruined. Subsequently, when the Wilberforces and Buxtons again appealed to Parliament in favor of the progressive emancipation of slaves, the enemies of humanity, as before, took the alarm, and made a bold stand; but I still hope and trust ​in the justice and generosity of the British people that an act in favor of emancipation will be obtained and triumphantly carried into effect, in like manner as was done for the abolition of this infamous traffic. Why, therefore, should the Brazilians alone continue deaf to the voice of reason, of the Christian religion— I will say more, of national honor and glory ? for we are now the only nation, derived from European blood, that still publicly and unblushingly trades in African Slaves.

I also am a Christian and a Philanthropist, and God emboldens me to venture to raise my weak voice in the midst of this august assembly, in behalf of the cause of justice and sound policy—a cause the most noble and holy that possibly can animate generous and humane hearts. Legislators! do not fear the clamours of sordid interest ; it is your duty to proceed on, undismayed, in the road of justice and political regeneration ; yet still, circumstanced as we are, it behoves us to be guarded and prudent. If among us a reckless despotism has hitherto been insensible to every call on behalf of the nation, it was because such was the immediate interest of those who established it. They wished us to be a mixed and heterogenous people, devoid of nationality and kindred feelings, in order the better to enslave us, Thanks to heaven and our geographical position, we are ​now a free and independent nation. Nevertheless, how can we expect to enjoy the benefits of a liberal and lasting constitution, in a country continually inhabited by an immense multitude of debased and hostile slaves? Let us, therefore, from this moment, commence the grand work, as an expiation for our past crimes and offences. Yes, we ought not only to be just, but also repentant. We ought to shew, in the face of God and other men, that we repent of all we have done for ages, in this respect, contrary to justice and religion. Let us shew that we really practice the precept of not doing to others, that which we do not wish done to us. It is, consequently, necessary that those robberies, devastations and wars, which we encourage among the African savages, should at once cease. We must no longer bring to our ports thousands and thousands of negros, dying of suffocation in the holds of our ships, huddled together closer than bales of merchandize. Let us put an end to those numberless deaths and martyrdoms with which we have, and still do, scourge those unhappy beings on our own land. It is time, and more than time, for us to cease carrying on a trade so barbarous and butcher-like it is time also for us gradually to efface every vestige of slavery among us, in order that we may be able, in a few generations, to form an homogeneous nation, without which we shall never be truly free, respectable and happy. It ​is urgently necessary that we should go on putting an end to so much physical and civil heterogenity. Let us therefore take care, henceforwards, wisely to reconcile and combine so many discordant and clashing elements ; let us amalgamate, if I may be allowed the expression, so many different metals so as to make an uniform and compaet whole, such a one as will not be rent asunder at the first sound of political convulsion. What chemical science—what dexterity will not be requisite for those employed in so great and difficult an amalgamation ! Successfully to attain our object it behoves us, nevertheless, to be wise and prudent in our undertaking, yet always constant in its advancement.

Perhaps no nation, gentlemen, ever sinned so much against humanity as the Portuguese, of whom we once constituted a part. They went on devastating not only the lands of Africa and Asia, as Camoens justly remarks, but those also of our own hemisphere.^[1] The Portuguese were the first who, from the time of the Infante Dom Henrique, made it a branch of legal commerce to go and seize on free men and carry ​them to sell in the markets of Europe and America. Even up to the present day, more than forty thousand human creatures are annually torn from Africa, deprived of their homes, of their parents, children and brothers, and conveyed to our shores, without the smallest hope of ever again breathing their native air, here destined, during the remainder of their days, to work and toil under the cruel lash of their masters—they and their children, and their children՚s children, for ever !

If the negros are men like us, and do not constitute a separate race of irrational animals; if they think and feel as we do, what a picture of sorrow and misery do they not exhibit to the feeling and christian mind? If the groans of the brute creation affect us, how is it possible that we can avoid also feeling and expressing a degree of sympathetic grief at the hardships and misfortunes of slaves, continually before our eyes? Such, however, is the effect of custom, and such also the stimulus of avarice, that men see tears flowing in torrents from the eyes of those of their own species, without calling forth a single sigh of compassion or tenderness from their flinty hearts. Avarice, however, never thinks and feels like reason and humanity. In order to repel the accusations justly raised against its proceedings, it resorts to a thousand captious pleas, to serve as an apology. It says ​that it is an act of charity to bring slaves from Africa, because those miserable beings by this means escape from falling victims to despotic chieftains. It equally asserts that if these slaves did not come over here, they would be deprived of the light of the Gospel, the knowledge of which every good christian is bound to promote and spread. It says these wretches change from a horrid and burning climate to a mild, fertile and enchanting country—finally, it adds that, as criminals and prisoners of war are condemned to immediate death by the barbarous customs of Africa, it is a service rendered to humanity to purchase them, with a view to preserve their lives, although they may have to live in captivity.

Wicked and foolish men! All these arguments would be worth something, if you were yourselves to go to Africa in search of negros to give them their freedom in Brazil, and establish them as colonists ; but, to perpetuate slavery, to render those unhappy people more wretched than they would have been if some of them had died by the sword of injustice, or even to be the cause of these horrors being continued, is, most assuredly, a manifest crime against the eternal laws of justice and religion. And why, let me ask, are the children of these same Africans, whom avarice would thus seek to befriend, to continue to be slaves ? Did they commit any crimes? Did they also change from a ​bad to a better climate? Were they brought from the darkness of paganism to the light of the Gospel? Most assuredly no, and yet they, as well as their children and children՚s children, are, according to you, condemned to wear the chains of bondage for ever. The voice of justice and religion proclaim ye insincere, and only in the barbarous public law of ancient nations, and particularly of Rome, can ye find a plea for your depravity. With the authority of the Greeks and Romans, it is, that the advocates of slavery usually seek to shield themselves; without adverting that, among the Greeks and Romans, the eternal principles of natural right and the divine precepts of religion were not properly understood and established ; and still as the slaves of those times were of the same colour and origin as their lords, and likewise had attained the same, or at least nearly the same, degree of civilization, their industry, good behaviour and talents, which depended on themselves, easily enabled them to find and deserve the love of those to whom they were bound, as well as the consideration of other men, advantages which can never fall to the lot of African savages.

If at least the owners of slaves in Brazil treated those miserable wretches with more humanity, most assuredly I might be inclined to excuse, although I never could be induced to ​pity, their blindness and injustice. The greatest part of the free inhabitants of Brazil, however, and more particularly the Europeans, are not only deaf to the voice of justice and the precepts of the Gospel; but they are even blind to their own pecuniary interests and the domestic felicity of their families.

It is well known that immense capitals annually go out of this empire to Africa, and immense capitals also are sunk within this extended country, by the purchase of slaves, who either die, are taken ill and become disabled, or if they survive and enjoy their health, perform very inadequate labour. What an useless luxury in slaves do we not behold in our towns and cities, without which evil, our wants would be confined to a few and necessary servants? And, let me ask, what kind of education can those families expect to have which avail themselves of the services of these miserable beings, devoid of honour and religion—of female slaves, for example, who prostitute themselves to the first man who solicits their favours. Every thing in this life meets with its return, in some way or other. We tyrannize over our slaves and reduce them to the state of brutish animals, and they, in return, initiate us in their immorality and teach us all their vices.

If gentlemen, it is a fact that the social mo​rality and justice of a people depend, partly on their religious and political institutions, and partly, if I may be allowed the expression, on the domestic philosophy of each family of which society is composed, what a picture does not the Brazilian territory present to the contemplative mind, if we consider it in these two points of view? What is the religion we have among us, notwithstanding the beauty and holiness of the Gospel which we profess to follow? The religion of which we boast, if only carefully examined, will be found to be in reality little else than a system of antisocial superstitions and abuses. Our clergy, with only few exceptions, ignorant and corrupt, are the most eager to become possessed of slaves, and they increase their numbers, in order to add to their own riches, by hiring them out to labour or employing them in tilling the ground, although frequently out of the chosen females who may have had the misfortune to fall to their lot, they form Turkish haarems to gratify their own licentiousness. Families, however rich and respectable, can never receive the advantages of education with such examples constantly before their eyes—they never can expect refinement in countries where the traffic in slaves is always going on. Nothing can habituate them to know and love virtue and religion. Riches, and more riches, do our pseudo-statesmen cry out, and their call is re-echoed by the buyers ​and sellers of human flesh, by our ecclesiastical blood hounds, by our magistrates—if it were possible to give a title so honourable to men, mostly venal, who wield the sword of justice only for the purpose of oppressing such unhappy people as are unable to satisfy their avarice, or contribute to their welfare. How, therefore, can justice and virtue prevail, or how can moral habits flourish among us? Gentlemen, when I give way to bitter reflections of this kind, I nearly lose all hopes of ever seeing our country regenerated and happy, for who is not aware that the order of human vicissitudes is entirely inverted in Brazil? Luxury and corruption sprung up among us before civilization and industry, and what can be the principal cause of so alarming a phenomenon? Slavery, I answer, Gentlemen—slavery, because the man who relies on the daily earnings of his slaves, lives in idleness, and idleness brings all other vices in its train.

Blind avarice, however, declares that slaves are indispensably necessary in Brazil, because the natives are weak and lazy. Most assuredly those who argue thus are deceived. The province of St. Paul, previous to the introduction of the sugar-cane, had very few slaves, and nevertheless it increased in population and agriculture; it supplied several other maritime as well as interior provinces with Indian corn, ​beans, mandioc-flour, rice, bacon, pork, &c. But even granting for a moment, which I am by no means inclined to do, that in reality the free people of Brazil are unable to endure the hard labour of tilling the ground as well as Europeans, I would ask whether when Indian corn, for example, on the best lands in Portugal produces only forty for one and in Brazil upwards of two hundred, with other grains in the same proportion, whilst the hours of necessary labour in tilling the ground are at the same time in an inverse ratio to the proceeds, why is more bodily strength, or why are greater efforts required here? Are the labourers of India, perchance, more robust than a white, a mulatto, or one of the casts in Brazil? Most assuredly no—and yet the people of that country do not die of hunger? And because they have no African slaves among them, are their lands left uncultivated? Is not their country, on the contrary, one of the richest on the globe, notwithstanding their abominable religion and government, and the infernal policy of dividing the population into casts? There the cultivation of the sugar-cane and the making of sugar have increased prodigiously in modern times, and the quantity of that article furnished in the markets of Europe, already competes with the produce of Brazil and the islands situated in the Gulf of Mexico.

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In Cochinchina there are no slaves, and yet the annual growth and exportation of sugar, according to the authority of Poivre, as early as the year 1750, amounted to forty thousand hogsheads, weighing 2000 lbs. each, and the price was extremely cheap in the market. It ought further to be observed, that the whole of this sugar was produced in a very small circuit of country, without the necessity of laying waste forests and sterilizing lands, as unfortunately is the case among us.

Besides, when once that abominable method of farming is at an end, by which we go on, in rapid progression, cutting down forests and laying the surface bare to the powerful action of the sun; when once the improvements in European agriculture are introduced among us, no doubt, with few hands and by the aid of ploughs and other useful implements, the cultivation of our soil will advance rapidly, our estates will become more organized and attractive, and the land, by being better worked, will be rendered more productive. Nature, wise and provident, in every part of the globe, affords the means necessary for the ends of civil society, and no country requires forced and foreign labourers to become cultivated and rich.

Moreover, the introduction of fresh Africans ​into Brazil does not increase our population, whilst it serves only to counteract our own industry. In order to prove the first position, it will only be necessary to notice attentively the census for the last five or six years, and it will there be seen that, notwithstanding the importation into Brazil, as I have already stated, of about forty thousand slaves annually, the increase of this class is not perceptible, or at least it is very trifling; almost all die of wretchedness and despair, and yet they cost immense sums, which are lost for ever, or never repay the interest of the money laid out upon them.

In order to shew the truth of the secoud position, viz. that slavery cannot fail to counteract our own industry, it will suffice to bear in mind that the owners of slaves mostly live in idleness, as they do not find themselves compelled by hunger or poverty to exert their own industry and improve their mode of farming. Besides, as slaves continue to be exclusively employed in agriculture and the mechanic arts, even if poor foreigners were to come over and establish themselves in our country, in a short time, as is proved by experience, they also would cease tilling the lands with their own hands, for as soon as they are able to provide themselves with two or three slaves of their own, they become unwilling to work, and give themselves up to idleness, influenced most probably ​by example and the mistaken notions of a false honour. The arts are thus left stationary, and machinery, that great saving in human labour, owing to the extreme abundance of slaves always to be met with near our large towns, is totally disregarded. It excites rage, or rather laughter, to see twenty slaves employed in carrying to market twenty bags of sugar, which might be conveyed thither by one or two well-constructed carts, drawn by two oxen or a pair of mules.

Besides, the cultivation of ground in Brazil, done by raw and lazy slaves, does not yield so great a profit as ignorant and self-conceited men erroneously imagine. If we calculate the actual cost of the purchase of the land ; the capitals laid out in providing the slaves intended to cultivate it; the agricultural implements with which each one of these slaves is to work;^[2] their food and clothing ; their frequent illness, real or feigned, and also the expence of medical attendance ; the numerous deaths occasioned by bad treatment and despair, as well as the frequency with which they abscond and fly to the forests or hiding-places, it will appear evident that the profits of tillage in Brazil must be very small, notwitstanding the prodigious fertility of the soil, and this fact is fully proved by , experience.

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In Brazil the rent of estates does not depend on the extent and richness of the land, nor on the hands by which it is cultivated, but on the mere industry and judgment of the farmer. A land-owner is in fact extremely poor, if through his ignorance or neglect, he does not know how to turn the fertility of his lands and the hands he employs upon them to account. I should also wish, for their own good, that our large slave-owners would learn to know that a prohibition to traffic in human flesh would make them richer, because the slaves they now possess would then become more valuable, and, through their own interest, they would be treated better. The owners, in that case, would promote marriages, and by this means the numbers would be increased. Besides, when emancipated slaves become more numerous, in order to gain a livelihood, they would rent small portions of uncovered or close lands, which at present are of no value. Estates would then be more settled and eligible, whilst at the same time the rent of the land would not be confounded with the work and industry of individuals.

These are not the only evils which extensive slavery brings with it in Brazil—the state is still more materially injured. If the owners of lands did not hold too large a number of slaves, they would themselves make use of a quantity of grounds already open and unwooded, which at ​present are left neglected, as if they were barren and worthless. Our forests, so rich in all kinds of timber, both for the building of houses and of ships, would not then be destroyed by the deadly axe of the negro, or reduced to ashes by devouring flames, lighted up by the hand of ignorance. The verdant summits of our hills and mountains—those perennial sources of humidity and fertility to the lowlands, as well as the promoters of electric circulation, would not then be laid bare and scorched by the burning heats of our climate. It is, therefore evident, that if agriculture was carried on by the free bands of small farmers, or by day-labourers, through both necessity and interest, advantage would be taken of those same lands, now neglected, more particularly in the neighbourhood of large towns, where a sure, as well as ready and profitable market is always to be found, and by this means our old and virgin forests would be preserved—forests which, by their foliage, size and frondosity, give a peculiar character to our beautiful country.^[3]

​It is, therefore, matter of astonishment that a traffic so much opposed to morality and the holy maxims of the Gospel, as well as the laws of sound policy, should have been carried on for so many, ages among men, calling themselves civilized and Christians. Alas! They do ​not speak the truth—they never deserved that

distinction.

Justice is avowedly the first basis of civil society, and the principal object of the latter is the felicity of men ; yet what right can one man allege to steal away the person of a fellow-creature, and what is still worse, the children of this fellow-creature, and the offspring also of these children ? It may possibly be said, that if the freedom of slaves is encouraged, an attack will be aimed against property. Do not deceive yourselves, gentlemen, the right of property was sanctioned and made sacred for the well-being of all, and what is the benefit the slave derives by losing all his natural rights, and changing from a person to a thing, in the language of the jurisconsults? It is not, therefore, the right of property which they seek to defend— it is the right of force; for as man can never be converted into a thing, he cannot be confounded with property. If the laws are intended to defend property, much more ought they to defend the personal freedom of men, who never can become the property of any one, without invading the rights of Providence, who made them free and not slaves, and without subverting the moral order of society, which is the strict observance of all the duties prescribed by nature, religion and sound policy. Avowedly the observance of all these obligations consti​tutes virtue, consequently, all legislation and all government, whatever may be its form, which has not virtue for its basis, is like the statue of Nebuchadnezzar which a stone detached from the mountain casts down to the ground—it is an edifice built on quicksands which the smallest gust of wind levels with the surface.

The traders in human flesh cry out against the Barbary pirates, who annually capture one, or at most, two thousand whites, yet they never deplore the seizure of so many thousands of unfortunate beings, who are every year dragged from their homes, and condemned, as well as their offspring, to pass their whole lives in slavery. It is no answer for them to say that they bought these beings with their money, as if money could purchase men ! and as if perpetual slavery were not a crime, and the most henious of all others, against the natural rights of the human species, as well as the mandates of the Gospel. The civil laws which allow of these crimes, are not only blameable for all the wrongs and miseries endured by this portion of our fellow-creatures, and for the suicides and offences which the slaves themselves commit ; but they are also answerable for all the horrors which, in a few years, must be produced by an immense multitude of men driven to despair, who already begin to feel the insupportable ​weight of injustice, which condemns them to endless degradation.^[4]

This trade in human flesh is a cancer that preys on the bowels of Brazil, and a trade also, at the present day, no longer required for the increase of her agriculture and population, as long as, by wise regulations, the idleness of whites, as well as of the mixed races and emancipated slaves is prevented; as long as the many slaves we already possess are enabled, under the ​auspices of an enlightened and paternal government, to propagate freely and naturally, the same as the other classes; as long as they are in a situation to bring up and educate their children, by treating their unhappy parents with a more christian feeling, a line of conduct self-interest would more than suggest ; and, in short, as long as measures are taken to promote the gradual emancipation of slaves so as to convert these immoral beings, as they now are, into useful, active and moral citizens.

Let an end, therefore, at once be put to the infamous and inhuman traffic in African slaves. This, however, is not enough. It is necessary seriously to think of ameliorating the situation of the existing slaves, and cares of this kind, once entered upon, are equivalent to a step already taken towards their future emancipation. The laws themselves ought to prescribe the means necessary to attain so desirable an end, if it is a fact that these same laws acknowledge that slaves are men made after the image of God. If the laws consider them fit objects for penal legislation, why are they not equally entitled to the advantages of civil protection?

I nevertheless repeat that I am not desirous of seeing slavery abolished suddenly—such an event would bring with it great evils. In order to emancipate slaves, without injury to society, ​it is our duty previously to render them worthy of freedom. The only thing required, is, that we should be persuaded by reason and compelled by law to raise and convert them gradually from the vile state of slaves, in which we now behold them, into that of free and useful men. The inhabitants of this empire, instead of being listless and cruel in this respect, as in fact the greatest portion of them now are, would then become humane and just ; whilst they would, besides, in the lapse of time, be considerable gainers, by putting into free circulation dead capitals, at present absorbed by the use of slaves, and they would moreover relieve their families from the domestic examples of corruption and tyranny, now constantly before their eyes—from enemies of their own as well as of the state—from the sight of men, in short, who now cannot be said to have a country of their own, yet by proper management may be made trusty fellow citizens and useful members of the community.

The injury has unfortunately been done— slavery has existed for years, but let it be our duty, our pride, to prevent its fatal consequences from being aggravated and any longer increased. We are still in time to remedy the evil, if we have only courage to undertake the task. The horrid traffic in slaves being once successfully abolished, if motives of policy and ​economy should for the present induce us to allow the slaves existing among us to continue in the fetters of bondage, at least it is an imperious duty imposed upon us, to promote their gradual emancipation, so that our country may one day or other be totally free from this dangerous cancer, continually preying upon its vitals. This, most assuredly, must be the work of time, but let us at once begin to mitigate the sufferings of our slaves ; let us lighten their burdens ; let us encourage and increase their domestic and civil enjoyments ; let us instruct them fundamentally in the religion of Jesus Christ, and cease misleading them by mummeries and superstitions. By these means we shall extend to them all that civilization of which they are susceptible, in the unhappy situation in which they are now placed, and we shall besides train them up in the expectation of better days, by stripping them, the least we can, of the dignity of men and fellow citizens. This is not only our duty, but also our immediate interest, for thus only, and by keeping alive within their breasts the hope of seeing themselves our equals in rights, whenever they are deserving of that distinction, will slaves emulate each other to tread the path of rectitude, and beginning at once to enjoy the prospect of freedom and the benefits of moral instruction, of which vice alone can deprive them, they will serve us in the interval with ​fidelity and love—from being enemies they will become our friends and fellow-travellers in life. Let us, therefore, be just and beneficent, and we shall soon feel within our own breasts that there is no situation more pleasing and enviable than that of a kind and humane master, living fearless and contented in the midst of his slaves, as if he were in the bosom of his own family, enjoying and admiring the fervour with which those unhappy beings listen to his advice, anticipate his wishes, and obey his commands. The master himself will then behold, with a kind of celestial joy, the married couples plying around him, anxious for the future welfare of their offspring. He will see the motley group of young and old, healthy, clean, robust, contented and smiling, whatever may be the task they have to perform, and these regenerated beings will not only emulously cultivate their master՚s lands for the purpose of enriching him, but they will hasten to offer him the first fruits gathered in their own gardens— the choice of the game they have killed in the field, or the fish they have taken in the stream. In their minds, the liberal and beneficent master will hold the place of a tutelar divinity, and their greatest ambition will be to please him. The lash of compulsion will be no longer heard.

It is, consequently, time that those barbarous ​and flinty-hearted masters, who unfortunately still abound in Brazil, should feel the stings of conscience and listen to the voice of humanity, or at least, it is time for them to consult their own interests. If they disregard this admonition—if they reject this advice, possibly, sooner than they expect, they will be punished for their injustice, and become the victims of their own incorrigible barbarity and wickedness.

I shall now, gentlemen, call your attention to the plan of gradual emancipation which I propose, by submitting to you, in separate articles, the objects suited to form the ground-work of the new law it has fallen to my lot to suggest. Discuss, amend and amplify them, according to your justice and wisdom. For their construction I have availed myself of the legislative acts of the Danes and Spaniards, but more particularly of those of Moses, the only one among the ancients who pitied the miserable situation of slaves, not only from motives of humanity, by which all his institutions are preeminently distinguished, but also actuated by a wise policy and the dread of being surrounded by domestic enemies, preferring rather to have near him friends capable of defending the new establishment of the Hebrews, by taking up arms when required, in behalf of their masters, as the vassals of the patriarch Abraham had done before him. To these authorities I have ​added the result of my own observations and experience.

Article 1. Within four, or five years, at the furthest, the trade now carrying on in African Slaves, shall cease and be abolished for ever, and during the interval in which it is allowed, for every male slave imported, a sum double in amount to the present rate of duties shall be paid; on female slaves, however, only one half of the present rate shall be levied, this sex being fewer in number, it will be desirable to encourage marriages.

Art. 2. All and every slave who may be sold or transferred, subsequent to the publication of the present law, whether brought over from Africa or already living in Brazil, shall be registered on a public book of returns, in which entry, his or her age and the exact price for which he or she has been sold, shall be declared. In order that this article may be carried into full effect and the risk of an omission made known, any citizen shall be authorized and allowed to accuse the offender of any infraction, and due proof being adduced of the fact, the accuser shall receive from the contracting parties, whether buyer or seller, who may have ​evaded the entry on the registers, one half of the sum at which the said slave is valued.

Art. 3. In the enfranchisements of slaves, the sale price of whom is not proved by register, a legal valuation shall be made by two arbitrators, one of whom shall be named by, the owner, and the other by the public authority competent thereto.

Art. 4. In valuations of this kind, due consideration shall be had to the number of years the slave has been bound, the state of his health and also his age. For example, for infants one year old, no more than twelve per cent on the value of a grown male shall be paid; children, from one to five, six per cent; from five to fifteen, two thirds of the value; from fifteen to twenty, three fourths; and from twenty to forty, the full and highest price, From the latter age, onwards, the value shall invariably diminish in a proportionate degree.

Art. 5. Any slave, or any other person on behalf of any slave, who may offer to an owner the amount for which he or she has been sold, or at which be or she has been legally valued, shall be immediately made free and registered accordingly.

Art. 6. If, however, the slave, or any per​son acting on his or her behalf, should not be able to pay down the whole amount in full, as soon as the sixth part thereof shall be tendered to the owner, the latter shall be held bound to receive the same and allow any such slave one free day in every current week, and so in proportion as many days as he the said owner shall have received similar instalments, until the total amount of the price is completed and paid.

Art. 7. Any owner who gratuitously gives freedom to a slave, as a reward for his the said owner՚s beneficence and goodwill, shall be allowed to retain any such slave so manumitted in his service for five years, without paying him or her any thing for daily or weekly hire, and only on condition of providing him or her with food, medical attendance, and clothing ; if, however, a stranger should emancipate a slave, conformably to articles 5 and 6, he the said stranger shall be allowed to bargain with the slave so emancipated and agree as to the terms of indemnity for the monies by him so advanced, by stipulating certain days on which the said emancipated slave shall be bound to work on account and behalf of his or her benefactor, and the bond and contract so agreed upon and concluded between the parties shall be submitted to and approved by the special judges and protectors of slaves.

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Art. 8. Every owner emancipating an old, or invalided slave, shall be held bound to feed, clothe and provide medical attendance for him or her, during his or her natural life, provided the slave so emancipated has no other competent means of existence ; and in case the said owner does not agree thereto and comply therewith, the said slave so emancipated shall be received into the hospital or workhouse, and there fed and taken care of at the expence of the late owner.

Art. 9. No owner shall be allowed to sell and transfer a male slave married with a female slave, also his property, without selling the wife at the same time to the same purchaser, together with all their children under the age of twelve. The same regulation is to be observed with an unmarried female slave, having children under the age above specified, from whom it shall not be lawful to separate her.

Art. 10. All emancipated slaves of colour having no trade or sure mode of livelihood, shall receive from the government a small grant of land for the purpose of cultivating the same, and they shall besides receive from the said government the necessary aid and advances to establish themselves on the said grant, which advances they shall be held bound to repay by instalments, at stated periods.

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Art. 11. Every owner who shall cohabit with a female slave, or shall be known to have one or more children by one, shall be compelled by law to give freedom to the mother and her offspring, and also to provide for and educate the children so had, until they shall have attained their fifteenth year.

Art. 12. Every slave is the owner of all money or property he or she may legally possess and have acquired, and shall be entitled to dispose of the same by gift or bequest to whomsoever they may think proper, in case they have no direct heirs ; and if any slave should die intestate and have no heirs, the property he or she may have so left shall be made over to the Charitable Fund.

Art. 13. No owner shall be allowed to punish, or cause to be punished, his slave, by flogging or any other cruel mode of chastisement, except at the whipping-post in the public market-place of the city, town or village in or near which he or she may reside, on the previous permission of the special judges and protectors of slaves, who shall determine the nature and extent of the punishment, in proportion to the offence committed, and after a due hearing ; and whosoever shall be convicted of a violation of the law in this respect, shall be punished by fine payable to the Charitable Fund, an ​appeal however before the provincial assizes or the superior board being allowed.

Art. 14. Every slave who can produce proof before the special judges, or the assizes for the province, that he has been cruelly and unjustly treated by his owner, shall have a right to seek out a new owner ; if however he has been maimed, or in any other respect received serious bodily injury at the hands of his said owner, he shall at once be declared free by law.

Art. 15. Slaves of a proper age shall be allowed to give evidence in courts of law, not on the part of their owners, but for and against all other persons to whom they are in no wise bound.

Art. 16. Before they have attained the age of twelve years, it shall not be lawful to employ slaves in unhealthy or hard labour, and the local magistrates, as well as the municipalities and courts of law, are hereby enjoined to watch over the observance of this article, as well for the benefit of the state, as the respective owners of slaves.

Art. 17. It shall also be the duty of the municipalities and assizes to fix and determine, in each province, the hours to be allotted for ​work and rest, according to the seasons and the nature of the duties to be performed ; it also devolves on them to regulate the rations of food to be distributed to each slave, according to his or her age, as well as clothing and other requisites.

Art. 18. Female slaves, during their pregnancy and for three months after they have been delivered, shall not be compelled to field-work, or other hard labour. In the eighth month of their pregnancy, they shall not be obliged to work out of the house ; after their delivery, they shall be allowed a full month for their recovery, and during a year they shall not be called upon to work at a distance from their infants.

Art. 19. Every female slave, having raised her first child, on being again pregnant, besides the privileges above specified, shall be allowed one hour՚s daily rest beyond the time specified by law, and so on in proportion to the children she has had and reared, and she shall moreover be entitled to her entire freedom when she has borne five children, yet nevertheless obliged to live with and obey her husband, if she is married.

Art. 20. No owner shall be allowed to prevent the marriage of his slaves with free women, ​or with female slaves of his own, or those of others, as long as the said free women undertake to live in the place where their husbands are employed, and provided also the said female slaves express their own consent to the union.

Art. 21. The Government shall be authorized to adopt such measures as may be deemed necessary to compel the owners of sugar estates, and other large plantations, to have at least two thirds of their slaves married.

Art. 22. The government shall also be required to adopt such regulations, as may be deemed expedient, to have all slaves properly educated and taught the principles of religion and morality, an object of great importance to the state, as besides emulating the slaves in the hopes of a happy futurity, they are thus taught subordination and obedience to the laws of the land, as well as fidelity to their owners.

Art. 23. The government shall be required to impress on the minds of the parish-curates and other clergymen, living in a state of independence, or possessing adequate means of subsistence, that their religion enjoins them to give freedom to any slaves they may hold, and that they are bound, by every sacred tie, to prevent, as much as lays in their power, the increase of ​this unhappy class of beings, and to befriend them by their aid, counsel and example.

Art. 24. In order that hands may not be wanting to carry on the work and necessary duties of agriculture and industry, the government shall be called upon to carry into full effect the police regulations against idlers, beggars and vagrants, more particularly when the persons so employed are strong and healthy, or people of colour.

Art. 25. In the manumissions which may be advised and carried into effect, on account of the Charitable Fund, mulattos shall be preferred to other slaves, and the creoles, or those born in the country, shall be deemed more eligible than the slaves originally brought over from the coast of Africa.

Art. 26. The day appointed for these manumissions shall be one of public rejoicing, in the place where the act is performed, and at the ceremony the civil and ecclesiastical authorities shall assist.

Art. 27. As a reward due to beneficence and a tribute sacred to religion and justice, every owner who shall have given freedom to eight families of slaves, and allotted to them lands and distributed among them the necessary im​plements to work them, shall be considered by the government and local authorities as a person who has deserved well of his country ; his service so rendered shall be recorded and made public, and he shall also be entitled to ask favours, or solicit public distinctions.

Art. 28. In order to excite industry and application among the slaves, as well as with a view to promote their own domestic happiness, the government shall establish, in all the provinces, saving banks, similar to those known in England and France, where the slaves may be enabled to lodge their earnings and the proceeds of their own gardens and private industry.

Art. 29. To the Charitable Fund above mentioned, destined as it is for the manumission of meritorious slaves and families, besides the pecuniary fines already established, the following rates shall be made applicable, viz.—1st. One half of the ecclesiastical fees chargeable for mass said at private residences, and also of baptisms and marriages performed by licence, or not within the walls of the parish-church ; 2ndly. Two third parts of all legacies bequeathed for pious and charitable purposes, which, by a royal order, dated 5th Sept. 1786, were made applicable to the Royal Hospital and Foundling, of Lisbon ; 3rdly. All property escheated to the crown, or such as may be unclaimed for ​the want of legal heirs, which, from time immemorial, has been applied to the redemption of captives, together with such other items as are made applicable to the same purpose by the law of December 4, 1775 ; 4thly. The tenth of the revenues of property belonging to Brotherhoods and other religious Fraternities, which rate shall be duly collected by the local magistrates, who are to be empowered to audit and pass their accounts ; 5thly. One per cent on the rents of all estates, houses, gardens, and other leased or rented property, belonging to convents and monasteries, which shall carefully be collected in by the bishops, or superior authorities of the provinces ; 6thly. A fine or fee, fixed by the respective chapter, and payable by every person obtaining the order of Christ, or any other special honours and distinctions from the sovereign ; finally, half per cent payable by all persons renting any branch of the public revenue, or purchasing or occupying national domains, or other property belonging to the state.

Art. 30. The directors of the said Charitable Fund shall also be authorized to sue for, and collect in, all legacies and bequests which may be assigned to it, by pious and charitable benefactors.

Art. 31. In order to ensure the strict ob​servance of the laws so enacted, and with a view also to promote, by every possible means, the good treatment, moral improvement, and successive emancipation of slaves, there shall be established, in the capital of each province, a Superior Council or Board for the special protection and trial of slaves, composed of the president of the province ; the bishop, and in defect thereof, a clergyman of the highest rank and dignity ; the first magistrate and two other members, to be chosen by the government among the most eligible residents. The president of the province and bishop shall preside in turns, and succeed each other every month.

Art. 32. In addition to the aforesaid Council, or Board, there shall be established, in each town and agricultural district, an inferior Board, composed of the parish-curate, the military commander, an alderman, or civil magistrate, and one or two persons selected by the Superior Council from among the most respectable and virtuous citizens. This inferior Board shall try, in a summary manner, and decide all causes and complaints submitted to it, and an appeal therefrom shall be had to the Superior Board, whose sentence shall be final. The masters and head officers of the Brotherhoods and Fraternities, instituted for men of colour and existing in the capital, towns and agricultural districts, are, by virtue of their office and ap​pointment, the natural protectors, advisers and advocates of slaves, and as such are to be heard and respected.

I here submit to you, gentlemen, the outline on this important subject which the love of my country, and my zeal in the cause of justice and Christian piety, have suggested to me. The duty now devolves on you to examine, corret and complete the scanty and hasty sketch I have hastened to lay before this Assembly, whilst to me is left the pleasure and satisfaction of having been fortunate enough to call your attention to so weighty and urgent a matter. Our extended and almost boundless country, situated in the most beautiful and temperate climate of the universe, gifted with the greatest natural fertility, rich in numerous productions of its own, and suited to the introduction of an infinite number of others—alike free from the frosts of Europe and the burning heats of Africa and India, may, and ought to, be civilized and cultivated without the anxious and severe fatigues felt in other hemispheres, and without the aid of those forced and over-refined arts and commerce, hitherto exclusively confined to Europe.

Yes, Brazilian legislators and fellow-countrymen ! allow the people uninterruptedly to enjoy the civil liberty they have already acquired ; ​extend public instruction and morality among them ; labour to advance our agriculture, to develope and encourage our industry and mechanic arts ; increase and improve our roads and inland navigation ; endeavour also to add to the free population, by at once removing the poisonous cancer that preys on the vitals of the country and weakens our military strength—a strength so necessary under existing circumstances—in short, be yourselves just, faithful and patriotic, and soon shall we see the land of our forefathers happy, powerful and prosperous. Nature has done every thing in our favour, yet little have we done to deserve her bounty, or second her efforts. Our lands chiefly lie idle and neglected, and the few we have already located and dug up, are badly cultivated and prepared, because the labour employed upon them is performed by compulsion, and our rural implements wielded by indolent bands. Our numerous mines, through the want of active and intelligent workmen, are either unknown, or yield inadequate profits ; our majestic and venerable forests gradually disappear, want-only sacrificed to the flames, or the destructive axe of ignorance and egotism ; our bills and mountains are daily laid bare, and, in the course of time, we shall have to regret the absence of fertilizing rains, so favourable to vegetation and so tributary to our streams and rivers, without which, in the course of a few ​ages, our beautiful country will be assimilated to the arid plains and deserts of Lybia. Then, it is, that the fatal and dreaded day will arrive, when, if we are not prepared, outraged nature will be avenged for the errors and crimes committed on our land.

Awaken from your slumbers, therefore, Legislators of this vast empire of Brazil ! It is now time that we should arise and shake off the deadly lethargy in which we have been sunk for so many ages. You know, gentlemen, nay experience has fully convinced you, that we can never prosper—never enjoy the advantages of a real and secure industry—of an enlarged and flourishing agriculture, as long as we avail ourselves of aid and assistance derived from raw and depraved slaves. Both reason and experience have proved that substantial riches are only to be found where freedom and justice prevail, and never where captivity and corruption are seen triumphant. If the evil has been unguardedly done and the crime already committed by our thoughtless ancestors, do not let us go on, gentlemen, increasing the baneful effects, by every day adding to the number of our domestic enemies—to the number of those luckless and unhappy beings, who have no tie upon us— nothing to lose and every thing to hope from a revolution, similar to the one that so long filled St. Domingo with horrors. Listen to and pity, ​I again beseech you, the groans of our beloved country, which implores your aid and protection. Let us resolve to fight manfully in favour of reason and humanity—in favour of our own interests. In vain, let the rantings and revilings of avarice and selfishness be directed against us. Let the wicked indignation and discordant cries of those interested in the perpetuation of slavery, rather impel us on to triumph, by following the straight path of true policy, traced out by reason and morality.

And ye, traffickers in human flesh ; ye, unjust and cruel owners of slaves, listen, with shame and repentance, if ye have no country of your own, to the imperious calls of conscience and the cries of suffering humanity, otherwise, possibly earlier than ye imagine, ye will have to suffer terribly for your obstinate blindness and insatiable avarice, for if the punishment of heaven is sometimes slow, it is always sure and unerring. Which of ye, in the age in which we live, is fool-hardy and inconsiderate enough not to know, that the perpetual slavery ye seek to uphold is not only opposed to precepts of the gospel and the dictates of sound policy, but also at variance with your future interests, if only well understood, as well as the personal security and tranquillity of yourselves and children ?

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Generous citizens of Brazil ! ye sincere lovers of your country, keep in mind that, without the total abolition of the abominable traffic in African slaves, and without the careful and successive emancipation of the bondmen already suffering among us, Brazil will never be able to secure her freedom and national independence ; her sons will never succeed in firmly raising and defending the liberal constitution they have gained ; the various casts, by which our population is chequered, will never be trained and made useful members of society, and we shall never have it in our power to form, as we are imperiously called upon to do, a gallant army and a flourishing navy. Without individual freedom, civilization and solid riches can never exist ; without it, morality and justice are mere names ; and, where morality and justice are not practiced, there can be neither gallantry, strength nor power among nations.